


knives & violins

by behradtomaz



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Diego Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Good Brother Diego Hargreeves, Good Sister Vanya Hargreeves, Lesbian Vanya Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, and it focuses on diego and vanya working out their issues and becoming best bros, because i really need their friendship okay, but it gets slightly better, eudoras still dead which makes both me and diego sad, good god get them some therapy, i love all of the hargreeves siblings, its bold of you to assume that i can write any heteroseuxal characters, like a lot, occasionally lowkey against luther bc hes being a dick, okay so, so yknow, they acknowledge their trauma, they all need hugs actually, this definitely isnt canon compliant, this is my fixit fic of the end of s1
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2019-11-24 22:05:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18170429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/behradtomaz/pseuds/behradtomaz
Summary: when you're trying to stop the apocalypse, it changes your view of the world, of what's important.diego's always had more anger in him than he knows what to do with, anger that's only grown after years of neglect and betrayal, and it seems like vanya's the same way.but maybe they can help each other let go.oran au where allison, klaus, and diego stop luther from locking vanya up, and diego and vanya try to become something like family.





	1. Chapter 1

                diego’s eyes drifted away from his brothers while he and klaus argued with luther, meeting vanya’s as she screamed from the inside of the cell that luther had locked her in. he was vaguely aware that allison had gotten involved, knew that he was still yelling at luther, but it was all slightly detached, muted.

                then he drew one of his knives, and everything clicked back into focus.

                a tense silence fell when everyone noticed the weapon and the way diego’s gaze was locked on luther, and even vanya's cries for help seemed to calm for a moment. allison and klaus sunk back into the best fighting positions they could muster, given the circumstances.

                “let her go,” diego said quietly, words as cold and as sharp as the blades of his knives while luther considered his odds. “it’s four to one, asshole. you don’t have the right to overrule that.”

                “five,” klaus muttered, ben tense at his side, but no one heard him.

                “i have to protect-“ luther started to say, but diego cut him off.

                “you don’t _have_ to do anything. we make our own choices. and if this is yours, well, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.”

                for an instant, luther appeared to give in. but diego knew his brother too well for that, and he sidestepped the punch as it came, before hitting luther as hard as he could on the side. luther stumbled back slightly, and diego followed up the blow with a slash at his chest with the knife, which luther dodged, only to be shoved from behind by klaus.

                allison shook her head slightly when luther turned towards her, hesitancy clear on her face, but she still kicked him in the leg, doing her best to help klaus keep luther occupied while diego unlocked the door to vanya’s cell. allison didn’t want to fight her brother, but he was hurting vanya, and she couldn’t let him do that.

                vanya’s hands trembled as diego let her out, flinching back when luther sent klaus flying through the air and hitting the wall with a slightly sickening smack. “hey, hey, it’s alright,” diego said, doing his best to calm vanya down and keeping his eyes on her, even as he threw a knife over his shoulder at luther.

                luther grunted when the knife hit his arm, and allison took the opportunity to kick him in the chest, klaus scrambling to his feet and rushing over to diego and vanya as luther hit the ground hard.

                “get her out of here,” diego said to klaus, already turning towards luther. klaus hesitated, and then grabbed vanya’s hand and dashed out of the room, tugging his sister behind him, not even looking back to see how allison and diego were faring against their brother.

                diego cracked his knuckles and glanced over at allison, giving her half of a confident smile, which was all that he could muster. “let’s fucking do this.”


	2. Chapter 2

            diego trudged up the staircase, one arm in a sling and a bandage on his forehead. the fight against luther had been brutal, but he and allison had won. they had more to lose, after all, and that desperation might have helped save them.

            he was pausing outside of vanya’s room, not sure if he should go in or not, when klaus walked out, closing the door behind him.

            “how is she?” diego asked.

            “surprisingly okay, given luther's dick move,” klaus replied. “but i wouldn't be surprised if she made a grab for the liquor cabinet. how's allison?”

            “a little scratched up, but she’ll live. mom’s taking care of her. i’m gonna…” diego trailed off, gesturing vaguely in the direction of vanya’s room. he wasn’t exactly looking forward to the conversation, but he needed to find out exactly what had happened and let her know that luther wouldn’t be able to bother anyone for awhile.

            klaus nodded, stopping himself from tossing out one of his usual snarky remarks and walking off down the hallway. it was a rare show of sobriety - but he had been like that for a while, slightly more subdued, which was a little concerning, now that diego thought about it.

            diego opened the door to vanya’s room, standing slightly awkwardly near the entrance for a moment, not sure what to say, how to begin. vanya sat on the edge of her bed, watching him closely. there were tearstains on her face, and diego felt a twinge of guilt – though for what, he wasn’t sure. he had done his best to help her, but, then again, he had also been an asshole for her to years. she was the one who published the damn book – the book didn’t matter, not now. they had bigger things to worry about.

            “did…did luther do that to you?” vanya asked quietly, tilting her head towards the sling on diego’s arm.

            “yeah,” diego said, glancing down at the wound. “but we did worse to him.” and, _damn_ , it had felt good. it shouldn’t have, but it did.

            vanya didn’t outwardly react, though she was a little bit glad that luther was hurting. it was cold, and probably only helped prove that he was right to have called her dangerous, and she hated herself for it, but that didn’t stop her.

            “how’re you feeling?”

            she shrugged, keeping her movements as small and quiet as possible. “not so good. i, uh…i just wish everything would go back to normal. i mean, being the ordinary one sucked, but at least luther didn’t hate me.”

            “he doesn’t hate you,” he said, “…probably. i dunno, i’ve never understood him. he’s just worried about allison, about everybody, i think. still thinks he’s got to protect us all. but he doesn’t.”

            she smiled wryly, wrapping her arms around herself. “how are you so sure about that?”

            “’cause you’re our sister,” he replied, like it was just an explanation for everything, something that he believed meant the world. and maybe it was. diego had never been too close to any of his siblings (reginald had made damn sure of that), but he still considered them his family, people he would kill for, even die for. maybe that was why the book had hit him harder than the rest of the hargreeves. “we’ve all treated each other like shit, and we should’ve treated you better when we were kids, but we’re _family_. doesn’t mean we forgive each other, doesn’t mean we get along, or stay together. we don’t hurt each other, though. least, not in any way that causes permanent damage. usually.”

            he sounded so certain, his conviction so strong, that vanya found herself believing him. but she couldn’t. “i…i _slit_ allison’s _throat_ ,” she said weakly, digging her nails into her arms. “she was trying to help, but she started to use her powers, and i-i could have killed her, diego. i just reacted, and it…” tears were starting to form in her eyes again, and there was a low hum in the room as the walls started to shake.   

            diego sat down next to her, hesitantly placing a gentle hand on her back. “allison’s okay,” he said, “and she doesn’t blame you at all, v.” the nickname slipped out easily, a remnant of a short-lived childhood closeness that had nearly been forgotten. “you’re not gonna hurt us, we’ll get through this together, alright? help you learn how to control your powers more. and luther won’t fuck with you again, we’ve got your back.”

            “…promise?” it was another callback to their youth, when that simple word was pretty much all that it took to get any hargreeves sibling to go along with a harebrained scheme, whether it was sneaking out for doughnuts or stealing pocket change from pogo, or even reginald.

            “promise.”

            vanya slowly nodded, the noise fading and some of the tension draining from her body. she was slightly surprised that diego was the one to come talk to her – though she supposed that with luther…wherever he was, diego was number one now – and even more surprised by how good he seemed to be at being something close to comforting. he had picked it up from mom, probably. things weren’t good between them, hadn’t been for years, but he had always been the loyal one, hadn’t he? always ready to fight for the people he cared about. but she didn’t think that she was on that list anymore, and he had never been the type to forgive easily, or at all.

            “you gonna be okay?”

            “yeah,” she said, and she was starting to believe it. “yeah, i’ll be alright.” he gave her a faint smile, which she returned with one of her own, and when he stood and started to head for the door, vanya spoke again. “you should’ve been number one. you’re good at all this leadership stuff.”

            diego paused by the door, some indescribable hint of sadness quickly passing over his face as he looked back at her. “nah,” he said quietly. “nah, i shouldn’t have been number one. none of us should have been numbers.”

            and there was really no way to argue with that, now was there?


	3. Chapter 3

            things were slowly starting to become normal in the hargreeves household. well, as normal as things could be for them, and definitely more normal than they ever had been before.

            it was almost strange, to see the house like that – mom puttering around with her usual cheery smile and pogo lurking, always right there when you need him was average enough, but the house felt…normal now. right. all the siblings were there again, after all. fucked up, tense, and still adjusting to the way things were, but none of them had run.

            it wasn’t unusual to see klaus’s heels sprawled in the halls, to hear the distant sounds of vanya’s violin, to find a cabinet with one of diego’s knives sticking out of it, to trip over a book of physics five had snatched, or to smile at one of claire’s drawings that allison had hung on the fridge.

            the only one who hadn’t seemed to have clicked into place in the family was luther.

            his siblings hadn’t originally found the time to figure out what to do with him, allison and diego simply leaving him unconscious downstairs and locking the door behind them when they left to tend to their wounds and make sure that vanya was going to be alright. but when five arrived, once he got over his initial surprise, he decided that they needed a more long-term plan in case if they found themselves in a worst case scenario and luther refused to see reason. locking him up would be more than a little hypocritical, and kicking him out of the house could be cruel, given that he barely had any experience with the real world, but it was all that they had. plus, with five back, it would be even easier to fight him off, if it came down to that. they hoped that it wouldn’t come down to that – except for diego. it was no secret that he was almost always looking for an excuse to fight his brother, and the recent events seemingly only increased that urge.

            diego, five, and allison met in the entrance hall, klaus opting out of dealing with luther. it was a tense meeting as they quietly made sure they were all on the same page, allison scribbling down sentences as fast as she could on her yellow notepad. five would handle the negotiations, allison would chime in if needed, and diego? diego would try to stop himself from pulling out a knife, and get involved if it became clear that a bad cop worse cop dynamic would work in their favor.

            all of those plans went awry when vanya came down the stairs.

            she frowned slightly when all of them tensed, sharp memories of all the times she had been excluded from family meetings flooding her mind. she didn’t want to think about that, wanted to be able to trust them, but it was certainly easier than focusing on the bandage on allison’s neck, the harsh reminder of the damage she could to do the people she cared about. “what’s going on?”

            “we’re gonna go have a talk with luther,” diego said quietly. “didn’t think that you’d want to see him.” it also felt as if bringing her along would only make it more likely that a fight broke out, which vanya couldn’t blame them for.

            she nodded, putting her hands in her pockets, still refusing to look at allison, locking eyes with diego instead. she had always been closer to five, but diego…he would understand the justified anger, the need for confrontation even when it wasn’t the smartest option. “i want to go with you.”

            there was a kind of resignation in diego’s eyes, and vanya knew that he would bring her, even as five started to protest and allison began to write what was probably a warning. she was surprised by her sister, though, and five fell silent when allison held up her notepad.

            _don’t let him hurt you._

“i…i won’t,” vanya replied, not sure how to react to the show of concern. she had hurt allison, why was she being this nice? “plus, i’ll have diego and five with me.”

            five shook his head slightly, not liking the new plan at all. “let him think i’m still out of the house. if things get bad, scream and i’ll come knock him out with a hammer before he even notices i’m there.”

            diego shot five a concerned look, but didn’t protest, his free hand resting on top of one of his knives in an almost worried way, tense and expecting a fight. vanya hadn’t yet worked on gaining control over her powers, and, from what allison had told him, they were strong as hell – dangerous, definitely. he trusted her to not hurt him on purpose, but if she lost control…things might get bad.

            allison gave vanya a quick, tight hug, doing her best to convey the forgiveness and comfort and worry that she couldn’t vocalize properly, even if she could speak. it was hard, talking to her sister, and she always seemed to fuck it up. but maybe they could really start over, work things out. maybe they all could.

            not waiting for the display of sisterly affection to finish, diego walked out, vanya trailing after him a moment later, unsure of what she should say to him. ‘hey, what will you do if i try to murder our brother’ didn’t sound like the best choice of words. but she didn’t have to worry about that, it turned out.

            “if he tries to fight, get out. your safety’s the important thing, and i can handle getting thrown around a little more. allison said you’re a serious badass now, but i think using your powers’ll just convince him more that he’s right. if you can’t get out, and the others aren’t helping, then kick his ass. that sound good?”

            she nodded, and the silence followed them into the elevator, both of them doing their best to suppress their small nervous habits as they prepared for whatever might happen. luther was family, and they knew him well, knew that the conversation could either be reasonable or a train wreck - and that the latter seemed to be much more likely.

            for once, diego didn’t want to fight his brother.

            but if it was what needed to happen to protect vanya, if it would take his mind off of eudora and stop him from processing his grief, he wasn’t going to complain. it was better to use a fight to distract himself than a drink, after all.

            he swung the door open, vanya standing strong beside him as they took in the sight of luther, who was waiting silently a few feet ahead of them, fists clenched and obviously pissed as hell.

            “hey there, brother,” diego said, leaning against the doorframe, his casual, almost arrogant tone doing nothing to hide the tension etched in every line of his body. “you ready to try to use your words instead of throwing people into walls?”

            “she is dangerous,” luther started to say, clenching his jaw. “i was trying to protect-“

            “she’s our _sister_ ,” diego fired back, and vanya felt a small rush of warmth at the words. it was weird, having him treat her like family again. but she could get used to it. “we’re supposed to stick together. thought you would’ve at least listened to allison, but i guess your head’s still too far up your ass.” it was the sort of thing he would always say when he wanted to start a fight, the sort of thing he had meant to avoid saying. but being around luther always made him a little more reckless, made him angrier and harsher and faster to argue. god, a psychologist would have a _great_ time examining that relationship.

            “she’s also a threat, she has no control-“

            “i’m _right here_ , guys,” vanya interrupted, crossing her arms. there was a flash of anger in her eyes, and, for a moment, she almost reminded luther of diego, all restrained rage and warning signs. “i don’t want to hurt any of you. i-i didn’t mean to hurt allison, and if i could undo it, you know i would, luther. i don’t need to be _controlled._ it didn’t work when dad tried, how the hell is it going to work for you?”

            luther paused, starting to look guilty, and this time diego was fairly sure that it wasn’t a ruse. luther cared about his siblings, that was no secret, but he was also the golden child, number one until the end, and if dad had done it, how could it be wrong? but reginald had been horrible to him, to all of them – he was still working on coming to terms with that, it seemed. “i…i’m sorry, vanya,” he said quietly.

            she blinked, the response throwing her slightly off balance. he was less stubborn that she thought that he was, apparently. “i…yeah, i know you are, luther.”

            diego motioned slightly to the door, not wanting to stay downstairs longer than they had to, the sight of the…the _cage_ vanya had been locked up in sending a wave of bad memories to the front of his mind. “let’s get out of here.”

            vanya left, but when luther started to follow her, diego grabbed onto the front of his coat, not bothering to take out a knife, not caring that he could snap him like a twig if he really wanted to.

“you hurt her, i’ll break you. understand?”

            luther studied him for a moment, and evidently didn’t like what he saw, a new kind of viciousness in his brother’s eyes that hadn’t been there when the family first reunited for the funeral.

            “yeah. i understand.”


	4. Chapter 4

            here was the thing about vanya and diego’s temporary alliance: it was suppposed to be just that – temporary.

            diego loved his sister, vanya knew that now, and he would do his best to help her learn about her powers and happily fight luther, but that did nothing to change any of their history. the childhood isolation and the book were still there, lurking under the surface, threatening reminders of how not okay they were.

            because of that, she wasn’t exactly surprised when he started to close himself off more again, though that didn’t mean that it didn’t still hurt. he was cold in a way she had never seen him before, and she couldn’t help but wonder if something had happened (other than the whole mess with luther), if something had changed him. she wanted to try to fix things with him, to move on, so asking couldn’t do much harm, right?

            vanya knocked on the door to diego’s tiny bedroom to announce her presence, biting her lip slightly as she stepped inside at his muttered ‘come in.’

            the room looked mostly untouched, even more pristine than the others mom had been cleaning, the bed perfectly made and not an item out of place. it was clear that he hadn’t been sleeping there, or simply hadn’t been sleeping at all. she hoped that it was the first one, but as she studied his face, she knew it was the second.

            he was sitting in the corner wearing civilian clothes, a coat lying right next to him like he was about to grab it and leave. but there was a mixture of fear and grief in his eyes, and she got the feeling that he had been meaning to go out, had somewhere to be, but couldn’t bring himself to actually go.

            “diego? are you okay?” vanya asked, and her brother didn’t even glance up. the gentle look he had whenever they were dealing with her powers was nowhere in sight, replaced with a kind of harshness that would send most people running for cover. it was striking, how differently he handled his family’s pain compared to his own.  
            “why would you care?” diego snapped, regretting the words as they left his mouth but doing nothing to take them back. he wasn’t sure that she did, really, and the only way he knew how to be rid of the grief and loss ravaging his system like a wildfire was to channel it into anger, to see the worst in the world and come out swinging.

            he hadn’t really come to terms with eudora’s death. it had been days since she had died, and days since he had fought the woman who killed her, but it still didn’t feel real. he had meant to go to her grave today, to try to make sense of things, but he felt himself crumble when he reached for his coat, saw the rabbit’s foot that had once been hers in the pocket.

            he would do anything to see her one last time, even if all she did was yell at him for messing with her crime scene.

            diego’s words stung, but vanya wasn’t so easily deterred. “it’s like you said,” she replied. “we’re family. i…i know you’re still mad about the book.” the words were coming out in a rush, and she didn’t think that she could stop them, even if she wanted to. “i didn’t write it to hurt you, to hurt any of you. and i’m sorry that it did, but i don’t regret writing it.”

            it would have been easy to lash out at her, to call bullshit and make things infinitely worse, and there was a part of him that wanted to do it, wanted to see what would happen. but there was also a part of him who wanted to cry, to grieve, and who knew that fighting his sister wouldn’t do anything at all to make him feel better.

            biting back insults, he stayed silent for a moment, tracing the lines on the wooden floor with his eyes, and then eventually said, “i just…i didn’t want the world to know how fucked up i am. hell, even worse shit happened that you didn’t know about, but i just – i don’t want people’s pity. and everybody looking at me like i’m still some kind of damaged fucking child made it a hell of a lot harder for me to convince myself that everything was gonna be okay. i-i know you’re sorry, v. and you had the right to call reginald out like that, but i can’t…you told them _everything_.”

            she sat down on the edge of the bed, wishing that he would look up, would stop hiding. “yeah. yeah, i know. i know. i’m sorry.” her voice was quiet, small, but strong. she knew what she had done; there was no undoing it, and she wasn’t sure that she would change it if even if she was given the chance to. it had been cold, yes, it had hurt them, but it was something that needed to be done.

            he ran a hand through his hair, and that was when he finally turned his head, held her gaze. oh, _shit_ , he’d been crying. she had never seen him cry before, he had made sure that none of them would, had done his best to be strong, always. if not strong for their father, then strong for them, and then later, strong only for himself. he had become convinced that if he started crying he would never be able to stop, and he wasn’t entirely wrong. it was…strange, seeing him like that. disorienting. but it only made her want to try to help more.

            “will you tell me what happened, diego?”

            after wiping the remnants of the tears off of his face the moment he realized that she had seen them, he very nearly said no. but this was _vanya_ , she was family, and she was _trying_ , really trying to make things better, trying to help him. that wouldn’t have been enough earlier, but now…now he needed that. he really needed that, even if he couldn’t put it into words, could never put anything that he meant into words.

            “i l-lost…” goddammit, his fucking stutter was back. always when he was trying to speak, when he was given the chance to make things better, it came back, making a fool of him again. he clenched his jaw, before forcing himself to continue. “i lost someone i l-love.” he couldn’t meet her gaze, didn’t want to see the pity and worry lurking there as he fought to get the words out. “she called me for help, ‘cause she was gonna…she was gonna try things m-my way, but i didn’t get there fast enough, and she…” god, he felt like he was going to be sick, the memory of eudora’s lifeless body hitting him, overwhelming his senses and making him squeeze his eyes shut, even when it did nothing to make the vision disappear.

            vanya didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what she _could_ say, because a standard ‘i’m sorry for your loss’ was nowhere near enough, would only seem hollow and meaningless to him. she didn’t know much about love, had only ever been really interested in ~~leonard~~ harold ( _was that even really love?_ she didn’t think so), and didn’t have much grief in her heart for him.

            and so she did the only thing that she could think of to do:

            she pulled diego into a hug, and let him pretend that he wasn’t crying for as long as he needed to.


	5. Chapter 5

            diego hadn’t spoken much to vanya since she had found him in his room.

            they had exchanged pleasantries around the house, been polite and more friendly to each other than they had in years, but it wasn’t much more than that. he didn’t know what to say to her, now that she had seen him weak and crying and heartbroken, didn’t know what to say to her to make her think of him as strong again.

            he hadn’t yet realized that maybe, just maybe, it was good that there was someone out there who wasn’t expecting him to be stoic and heartless all of the time, that there was someone close to him would listen and help and force him to deal with his own issues, not just other people’s.

            vanya’s support hadn’t fixed everything, neither of them were naïve enough to think that. but it was a start, and it was enough to convince diego to start letting his sister into his life, which was more than he could say he had done with allison, five, and luther, or even klaus.

            which meant that he would have to tell her about his boxing soon.

            the only one of his siblings who really knew was luther, and diego hadn’t even wanted him to find out. it was personal, for some reason. a part of him like not many things were. he took it seriously, never lost a fight. it helped to define him, to give him a sense of purpose.

            so when vanya ran into him on his way out of the house, when it was too dark outside for him to offer a normal excuse, he figured that he might as well tell her, get it over with. he knew that he shouldn’t be nervous – it wasn’t like boxing was some kind of scandalous activity that would shock or horrify her, unlike almost half of klaus’s hobbies – but that did nothing to lessen the sick feeling that was building up in his stomach.

            “where are you headed?” vanya asked in that quiet way of hers, hands tucked into her pockets.

            _my place_ , he almost lied, even though it would have been mostly true. “’ve got a boxing match tonight,” he said instead, not quite meeting her eyes. “i guess you can come along, if you want to.” he did his best to make the words casual, like they were a random decision, not something he had been agonizing over for hours, but he was pretty sure that his sister saw right through him.

            she tilted her head slightly, making sure that he was really offering and not just trying to be nice, and then she nodded, a smile lighting up her face.

            he gave her a quick grin back, hiding his nerves, and then turned and headed out, letting her follow behind him. this would be one hell of a fight.

-

            vanya didn’t have long to wait until the fight started, sitting slightly uncomfortably in the second row. she wasn’t used to this kind of setting, but boxing was clearly important to diego, so she could handle it.

            when her brother stepped into the ring, he stopped looking like just her brother, started looking more like the vigilante, like number two, the deadly fighter their father had wanted all of her siblings to be. but he also looked at peace in a way she hadn’t seen him in awhile – nothing like the broken, sobbing man she had seen the other day.

            he fought like a man with nothing to lose, and it was pretty clear from the beginning that his opponent never stood a chance.

            _was this all that any of the six would ever be able to be?_ vanya wondered, crossing her fingers when diego took a rather bad blow to the head. _had reginald done this to them, her siblings, one through six, hurt them until the only thing that they could ever do was hurt other people? were they that broken, all of them? or could they move on from it, be more than what he’d made them?_

            she hoped they could. maybe it was because she cared about them too much, or maybe it was because she needed to know that she could be more than her pain, too, but either way, she hoped that they could.

            diego won.

            everyone who placed their money on him won, too, and most of them had – they had learned over the years to never bet against hargreeves. he had a knack for finding his way out of the toughest of positions, never staying down for longer than a second or two. they knew who he was, who he had been; they didn’t care, so long as he fought clean and made a show out of it, and he always did. it was a precious trust, the one that they had in him, and he needed it more than he would ever admit.

            he didn’t stick around when the fight was over, simply changing and leaving the place, meeting vanya outside by his car. he leaned against the door, his hands in his pockets, letting the shadows hide the bruise right next to his left eye.

            she saw it anyways, but she didn’t say a word, smiling at him. “you looked like you were having a good time up there, diego.”

            “yeah,” he admitted, keeping his voice quiet, almost as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear him. “yeah, i did. it…relaxes me. clears my mind. i guess we all have our escapes. that’s why i always set up a match on our birthday.” he hadn’t told anyone that before.

            “i usually teach a lesson or practice that day,” vanya said, and diego took the opportunity to change the subject before things could get any more personal than they already were.

            “speaking of music, you have any concerts coming up?”

            she frowned a little at the blatant attempt to escape the conversation, and then nodded. “yeah, in a few days. why?”

            “well, i…would you be okay with me coming? classical music’s never been my thing, but still, i thought it’d be cool to go.” that was about the closest he could come to saying that he wanted to be there for her.

            “i would be more than okay with that, diego.”


End file.
